


Nearsighted

by UniverseInk



Series: Being Robin is Trans Culture [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Batfamily (DCU), Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Don't copy to another site, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Glasses!Tim, Nonbinary Jason Todd, Tim isn't adopted yet, Trans Tim Drake
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25385863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UniverseInk/pseuds/UniverseInk
Summary: Jason just rolls their eyes, throwing open the study doors. “Dad we have a fucking problem.”“What’s wrong?” Bruce glances up at them, slightly panicked.“Tim needs to get his eyes checked.”Or: Tim gets glasses
Series: Being Robin is Trans Culture [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1797367
Comments: 92
Kudos: 597
Collections: the batman family





	Nearsighted

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Tim! 
> 
> This fic is just me wildly projecting tbh. Also I'm very sleep deprived, so I might rewrite this when my brain is fully functional
> 
> This takes place a couple months after Of School Secretaries. Tim is staying at Wayne Manor, but hasn't been adopted yet. If you're not familiar with this au all you really need to know is that Jason is alive and nonbinary (they/them) and Tim is a trans guy (he/him)

Tim pauses the TV ten seconds into the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. “Hang on, can we watch the dub?”

“Why?” Jason asks.

“I can’t read the subtitles on a screen that far away.”

Jason frowns at the TV. The media room is basically a mini movie theater, so the screen is a little farther away than it probably would be in a normal living room, but the size more than makes up for the distance.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Tim squints, leaning forward on the couch. “Like, I can see where they are because of the white part on the bottom of the screen, but I can’t actually read them.”

“Dude, you need to get your eyes checked.”

Tim frowns. “I do?”

“Yes!” Jason throws their hands up in exasperation. “I’m ninety-nine percent sure you need glasses.”

“Huh. I guess that explains why I have a hard time reading the whiteboard even when I sit in the front of the class.”

“That’s it,” Jason announces. “We’re finding B and telling him you need to see the eye doctor.”

Jason strides out of the room, beelining for Bruce’s study. Tim follows.

“I mean, it’s not really his job to make me an eye appointment,” he says.

Jason just rolls their eyes, throwing open the study doors. “Dad we have a fucking problem.”

“What’s wrong?” Bruce glances up at them, slightly panicked.

“Tim needs to get his eyes checked.” Jason points accusingly to where Tim is hovering in the doorway. “He can’t read subtitles.”

Bruce relaxes. “Have you ever been to an optometrist before?” he asks.

“If that’s what an eye doctor’s called, then no.” Tim shrugs. “I didn’t realize my vision was that bad.”

“ _How?_ ” Jason hisses. 

“I can make you an appointment, but I can’t authorize medical treatment on your behalf.” Bruce opens his laptop. “There should be a way to make it work, though. I’ll look into it.”

Jason grins. “Thanks B!”

Bruce just nods, already absorbed in his work.

The next day Bruce calls Tim and Jason to his study. There’s a few stacks of paperwork on the desk in front of him, and he gestures for them to sit.

“So it is possible for me to make an eye appointment for you, but we’ll still need to get medical authorization from your parents,” Bruce explains. "I've filled out the forms, we'll just need to get your mom or dad to sign them somehow." Bruce hands the forms to Tim, looking back down at his desk. Tim grabs a pen.

"I think we can work out a way for them to sign them electronically—" Bruce cuts off as Tim hands him back the paperwork.

"Tim, did you just forge your father's signature?"

"Do you want me to answer that, or do you want plausible deniability?" Tim asks innocently. Jason barks a laugh.

“Tim, this is illegal,” Bruce deadpans, like Tim doesn’t already know that.

“Technically, yes. But it could take days to get ahold of my dad by phone, and it could be weeks before he has access to the internet to download and sign the forms.” Tim leans forward. “If me seeing an eye doctor is actually important, this is the easiest way to make that happen. Also he’s never gonna know.”

Bruce takes a deep breath. “Setting aside the legality issue, why do you think he won’t find out?”

Tim shrugs. “He won’t look into it. Even if I do get glasses all I’ll have to say is that someone pointed out that I should get my eyes checked so I did.”

“So he’s just… not gonna ask?” Jason scowls.

“I mean, probably. He didn’t find out I’d had chicken pox until I was like, ten.”

Bruce sighs in defeat, rubbing his temples. “I didn’t technically see the forms get signed.”

Tim grins.

The eye doctor isn’t what Tim was expecting. If he’d had to guess, he would have pictured something more clinical. In reality, it looks like a small hotel lobby if the decor was glasses-themed. 

Bruce leads them over to the desk. “Hello, we have a one o’clock appointment under the last name Drake.”

The receptionist checks the computer. “For ------?” she asks. Tim refuses to acknowledge his birth name.

“He goes by Tim,” Bruce corrects casually. “What you have listed is his legal name.”

“Oh, sorry!” The receptionist, her nametag reads Lisa, blushes. “I’ll put a note in the file. You can have a seat, the doctor will come and get you in a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” Bruce smiles warmly. 

Jason wanders over to the nearest glasses display, Tim trailing behind them. 

“So, any idea what style you want?” they ask.

“We don’t even know if I need glasses yet.”

Jason rolls their eyes. “Right.” They turn back to the display.”Anyway, what style?”

Tim is saved from answering by the doctor calling his name— his _real_ name. Bruce nods to him, so he follows the doctor back.

“I’m Dr. Stinson,” she says, as she leads Tim into a room with a bunch of machines sitting on tables. They look a bit like fancy microscopes. “We’re going to take some measurements here, then we’ll move to another room to finish the exam.”

Tim nods, sitting on the small rolling stool in front of the first machine. 

“Alright, rest your chin here and lean your forehead against the bar.”

Tim does so. Dr. Stinson adjusts the machine a bit, until his neck isn’t straining to reach.

“Okay, close your left eye and look ahead at the farmhouse. It’s going to go in and out of focus a bit, you don’t need to do anything.”

“Alright.” Tim watches as the colorful circle morphs from a smudge of red and white into an actual picture of a farmhouse. They repeat the process on his other eye before moving to the next machine.

“This one’s the same basic principle as the last, just stare straight ahead and keep your eye open wide. It’s going to blow a little puff of air into it to check the pressure.”

Tim rests his face against the guard, staring at another colorful dot. It looks a bit like a hot air balloon. Dr. Stinson presses a button, and a sharp burst of air hits Tim’s eye. He jerks back, making an indignant sound in the back of his throat.

Dr. Stinson smiles. “Yeah, nobody likes that one. Just one more on the other side.”

The other eye isn’t any more pleasant than the first, but after that it’s over. They finish up in that room and move on to the next. Dr. Stinson has him cover one eye at a time and try reading different charts with letters of varying sizes. Tim blushes when he struggles to read the lower lines.

After that, she moves a device attached to a mechanical arm in front of his eyes, and makes him choose between different options as she flips lenses around. 

“Alright, since this is your first eye exam, we do need to dilate your eyes.” Dr. Stinson flips the lights off. “They’ll be sensitive to light for a few hours after this, but we’ll send you home with sunglasses. I’m gonna put a couple drops in your eyes and then get a look at your optic nerves.”

Tim wrinkles his nose through the eye drop process, then through Dr. Stinson shining a light in his eyes and making him look in a bunch of different directions. After that, she hands him a pair of cheap plastic sunglasses and declares him good to go, sending him out to wait with Bruce. 

“How was it?” Bruce asks.

Tim scowls. “I hated it.”

“Oof, that bad?” Jason grimaces sympathetically. 

“They have a machine that blows air into your eyes. It felt like getting stabbed with a needle.” Tim flops into a chair. He’s definitely _not_ pouting. 

Bruce pats him on the shoulder, failing to hide an amused smile. After a few minutes, an assistant comes over to them.

“So, Tim definitely needs glasses,” she says.

“Told you.” Jason smirks.

The assistant smiles at Tim. “Why don’t you go look at frames while I talk to your dad about your prescription.”

Tim blushes bright red. “He’s not my dad,” he mumbles.

“Oh, I just assumed. You look so much alike.” The assistant fidgets with her clipboard.

“It’s alright,” Bruce assures her. “Tim’s a good kid, I don’t mind being mistaken for his father.” Tim’s chest fills with warmth.

“Come on.” Jason grins, pulling Tim over to a display. 

Jason points out a pair of rectangular frames with black plastic rims. “Try these.”

“Jason, those are hipster glasses.”

“So?”

“I’m not wearing hipster glasses.”

Jason rolls their eyes. “Fine, try these.”

After several minutes of Jason handing Tim frames and then vetoing them, Tim grabs a pair of his own choosing. They’re black metal, with square-ish lenses and a thicker frame on the top than the bottom. He puts them on, squinting into the mirror.

Jason hums appraisingly. “You know, not what I would’ve picked but I think they suit you.”

Tim smiles, taking the glasses off and folding the arms down. He brings them over to the table where Bruce is sitting with the assistant.

“Found a pair?” he asks. Tim lifts them up to show him. “I like those.”

Tim hands them off to the assistant. She puts them into a plastic tray along with what Tim assumes is the paperwork with his prescription on it. 

“These will be done in about two weeks, we’ll give you a call when they’re ready to be picked up. I would strongly suggest ordering a backup pair as well. You don’t want to end up having to wait another two weeks for a replacement pair if these break.”

“Alright, does he need to pick out another set of frames?” Bruce asks.

“He can, or you can just order two pairs of the same style.”

“One second.” Jason darts off, returning a moment later. They present Tim with another set of frames, grinning triumphantly. The style is similar, but the frames are red instead of black.

Tim slips them on. Jason gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up.

“Those look good.” Bruce holds up a hand mirror. “What do you think?”

Tim leans in. “They make my eyes look really blue.”

“That’s because red and blue are almost contrasting colors, they pop more.” Jason plucks the frames off Tim’s face and hands them to the assistant. She brings the tray over to the receptionist to finish processing their order. 

When Lisa reads off the price, Tim opens his mouth to object, but Jason elbows him in the ribs.

“Let the billionaire pay for your shit,” they whisper. Tim doesn’t bother to point out that his parents are also rich, and lets Bruce pay. 

Two weeks later, Tim is stepping out of the optometrist’s office with his glasses on, trying not to trip over his own feet because the ground looks weird now. He glances up and stops dead.

“What’s wrong?” Bruce asks.

“ _You can see individual leaves on trees?_ ” Tim asks, flabbergasted. 

Jason cackles. “You couldn’t before?”

“No! They were just green blobs!”

“Like a kid’s drawing?”

“Yes!” Tim scans the area. “I can see individual blades of grass, what the fuck.”

Jason doubles over from laughter. Bruce turns his head to hide a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Tim's reaction to wearing glasses for the first time is the exact same response my sister and I both had. Also, the air puff test is outdated at this point, but if I had to suffer through it at my yearly eye exams as a kid so does Tim  
> Edit (9/26/20): a bunch of people in the comments are saying their eye doctors still use the eye puff test, so apparently it's not as outdated as I was led to believe
> 
> For reference, Tim's glasses look like this:  
> 
> 
> You can find me on tumblr @merc--ury (main) or @transrobins (Batfam/DC blog)
> 
> Please leave a comment or kudos if you liked this


End file.
